Chance meetings

[shoku]

Shoku stepped out into the hall of the dorms, his crimson red eyes darting back and forth in search of anyone who might've been hanging around the area. He was already tired of being locked up in his room and he desperately needed to get out. Even though he was a sophomore, this was a new school for him, which meant that he was as a good as a freshman. New, unheard of, and worst of all no place among them where he was in position to pull some strings and cause some... unfortunate events.

The demon was considering what he could do to pass the time and relieve some of his boredom. He knew there was a dense forest outside of the school grounds, he could always practice his parkour there, it'd help him get his exercise in. On the otherhand, there was always time to do his parkour. What he needed was to establish his name in the heart and minds of a few the students, especially while the school year was just getting underway.

After a few moments of weighing the benefits of both, Shoku decided he'd rather meet some new people. Give them a chance to know the sweet, adorable, white haired demon. "If only I was really so innocent," Shoku said, thinking aloud. He decided he should check to see if the dorms had a common room of sorts, there were sure to be fellow demons around. Not like there was much else for them to do of course.

[Kairi]

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Kairi was not having a good day. Instead of wearing some fancy outfit as was her habit, she was wearing a pair of black jeans, a sleeveless shirt, and an unbuttoned light brown canvas jacket. She hadn't even taken the time for her hair- it was put up in a rather sloppy way, tied off by it's usual red ribbon so that she appeared to have hair no longer than her shoulders.

Obviously Kai's attire was the first indication that she either needed a major distraction or should be avoided. Too bad it seemed no one warned the demon walking in the hallway she'd just turned into. If they would have, he probably would have turned or something, or acted like he was busy. Since it seemed he was going to do neither Kai felt compelled to greet him. Her frown shifted into a small smile as she walked closer, stopping only when she was within speaking distance.

"Hi! Haven't seen you before. I'm Kai.

[/color]"Kai announced, her tone cheerful. She seemed to feel that introducing herself so abruptly was, indeed, an appropriate way to start the conversation. However, not seeing someone before was a fairly routine occurrence because she, like Shoku, was among the youngest of students. Worse still, she was a new student to the school, having transferred here less than a week ago.

✘kai

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[shoku]

Shoku noticed a girl with blonde hair turn into the hallway he was walking down. How interesting, he thought to himself. She looked as if she hadn't put much thought into her appearance, mainly due to how her hair was, but it didn't seem to distract from her natural beautiful looks. She's cute, the demon thought with a smirk. I could definitely use her if given the chance. Once he deemed himself close enough, he came to a halt.


"Hi! Haven't seen you before. I'm Kai."

"Yeah, I'm a new student just recently came here. Sophomore Shoku at your service. You can call me Sho, if you want to though." He said kindly, giving the other student a toothy grin and doing his best at a bow. "So," the albino continued, "why is such a pretty girl walking through the dorms by herself? I thought I would be the only one bored enough to be in this hallway. Not to say I don't love the attention, just can't imagine what you'd be doing here, instead of surrounded by friends."

He scratched the back of his head nervously, trying to seem somewhat shy, but not enough that she'd feel the need to leave him to himself. He noticed she had red eyes similar to his. If the fact that she was in the demon's dorm wasn't obvious enough that she was one of them, the red eyes definitely marked her for what she was. He couldn't help but wonder if being that nice, she also had a devastating mean streak to compensate for the sweetness. He wanted to push her buttons and find out, but not now. Shoku still wanted to get on her good side and pissing someone off within the first five minutes of meeting them isn't a good start off point.

[Kairi]

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"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sho.

[/color]"Kai replied, her tone as sweet as before. The bow made her giggle (much to her dismay- she wasn't trying to insult him) so when he asked the question, she was overly eager to answer. Her cheeks turned a light pink at the compliment that she was pretty- yet another annoying but automatic reaction.

"Aren't you charming? I haven't been here long enough to meet many of the kids.[/color]"Kai explained with a shrug. "Besides, the allure of a new person is far more tempting.[/color]" She would have thrown the question back, asking why he wasn't with friends of his own, but she could only assume that him being a new student himself had something to do with it.

"If you're assuming I'm bored, I take it you have nothing better to do than to have this conversation?[/color]" Kai questioned hopefully. In a strange way it was her way of assuring herself that he'd stay and talk to her. He was the ideal distraction, at least in that moment.

The simple fact that he wasn't completely put off by her enthusiasm was enough to interest Kai. It was just a bonus that he was- seemingly- smart and kind. Thus far there hadn't been a guy who offered compliments to her so readily. While Kai couldn't condone a boy playing the 'love at first sight' card, she certainly appreciated his words. In fact, she could say with ease that her top priority in that precise second was to keep him talking.

✘kai

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[shoku]

Shoku watched the girl's face become somewhat flushed when he complimented her. This is going to be too easy, he thought wickedly. If he could get a reaction like that out of her just by giving her a meaningless compliment, he wondered how long it'd be before she was "in love" with him. He was also pleased, though surprised, to know she didn't seem to have too many, if any, friends due to her being relatively new as well. "I agree meeting new people is always far more interesting. And if I had to pick someone to randomly become friends with, well then I guess I can easily say I'm glad I just met you." Shoku said, momentarily flashing the same grin.

When asked if he had nothing else to do than have the conversation with her, for the first time since their conversation he answered truthfully and shook his head. "I was thinking I would go out to the forest and practice some of my parkour. I've been in my dorm too long and needed to get out some you know? But now that I'm talking to you, exercising isn't on my top list of things to do at the moment."

"Anyway, tell me about yourself. I want to know more about the interesting Kai, and maybe become friends with her while I'm at it." He looked at her, his eyes gleaming with interest, which although feigned, was partly real. The more he knew, the closer he got.

[Kairi]

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Charming indeed. Though his words were kind as he gave another compliment, Kai managed to keep the blush from her expression momentarily.

"You're sweet.

[/color]"Kai offered with a smile,"I'm glad to have met you, too.[/color]" It felt a little odd to say she was glad. Normally that'd be something she'd keep to herself. That is to say, if he hadn't said it first, she certainly wouldn't have said it herself. But it really didn't matter, did it? Kai convinced herself it didn't.

"Practice parkour? And this is?[/color]"Kai questioned curiously. Her attention went to his appearance after she spoke, looking for any striking indication about where he was from. Some article of clothing, some feature of his face, or something like a tribal tattoo or something. Her initial, rather quick observation yielded no indication she could interpret. She would have liked to know what sort of country had this 'parkour' he spoke of, if at all possible. Maybe she'd just ask.

"About me?[/color]"Kai echoed. Maybe alarm bells should have been ringing, but they weren't. Kai was actually quite pleased by the whole encounter so the question seemed right in line. "There isn't much to say, really. I mean, I'm Kairi Malixi and I got sent here for being a demon. There isn't much more than that.[/color]" Kai was in favor of talking about things that didn't matter. What was her favorite color? Easy. What did she like to do? No problem. But without direct questions, she assumed he expected a rundown of her history or family. Something of substance, something concrete that might actually provide some insight. That she wouldn't part with no matter how charming he was, at least not so quickly. He'd have better luck if he went first and even then it was a long shot.

✘kai

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[shoku]

Shoku wasn't surprised to know she was unfamiliar with parkour. Most people didn't. If anything, they knew it by the english term for it, free running. Though he could understand most people not knowing it, it still annoyed him a bit, though he would never say anything to show it. "Well, I don't know if you've ever heard of free running but it's basically the same thing. It's a way of conditioning the mind and body to react quickly and use the environment to their advantage. You'd have to see it in action for it to make sense though. Maybe one day I'll invite you to a private session with me and teach you a few things."

"Well, I know you're a demon, obviously. Anyone walking the halls is presumably a demon. But I can hardly believe there's nothing more to you than a name and a race. Nothing you like, nothing you hate? no hobbies or skills or activities? I'm one of the most boring people I know and even I have a few interesting things about me." Some if you knew, you wouldn't even be sitting here talking to me, Shoku thought solemnly. He wasn't alright in the head and he could easily picture how he could brutally murder each student on school grounds, demon or not. Even this cute seemingly harmless girl. Shoku shook his head slightly, trying to clear his mind of the twisted thoughts.

"If you don't want to it's perfectly understandable though. Some people are naturally shy or have trust issues, I can easily respect that."

[Kairi]

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"That would be amazing. I'd be honored to.

[/color]"Kai replied. It felt a little odd to her, but she really, really hoped he would invite her. If it was just a polite lie, she knew she'd be disappointed. "I might have seen it on tv. They jump across buildings and stuff?[/color]"Kai questioned. If she knew more about it she would have thought of a better way to sound interested, but she didn't, so that was all she could say.

Touché. His implication that she was either shy or had trust issues struck a cord with her pride. That wasn't it at all! Her natural impulse was to say something snappy like, 'it's not that, I just don't like you, creep', but she found him too interesting to lie to.

"No, no ... Of course I do. I like to cook and I love furry animals. My hero is the Doctor, even though he's fictional- he's still amazing. I hate drinking milk, I hate red apples, stuff like that.[/color]"Kai offered. It was stuff she didn't care about so she could have went on if he asked her to. "I don't know that I'd be any good at your interest, but when I was growing up, I was really into gymnastics. I mean, I love dance more, but my mom put me into gymnastics when I was really little.[/color]" Realizing she'd mentioned her mom, Kai suddenly didn't want to say anything else to this boy. Not that it was his fault or anything, of course. She just wanted to quit while she was sorta ahead.

✘kai

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[shoku]

Shoku's faced scrunched up a bit hearing her talk about one of his favorite hobbies as simply "jumping across buildings and stuff". Still keeping his voice kind and polite, he responded to her with a "well then we should definitely plan a date, it'd be cool to have a partner. Maybe even start a club if you find yourself interested enough." He listened intently to all the small facts and meaningless things she said about herself. Though he didn't care, he still stored it in his memory. From his experience he knew girls loved to be listened to once in awhile, and since this one in particular seemed easily satisfied by the smaller things paying attention to her avidly could do wonders.

"Well not to sound like some creep or pervert. But if dancing is something you like you should definitely do it, and maybe I could watch you in action one day. The gymnastics background is sure to help with some of the moves that require you to be more limber and flexible, not to mention you definitely look like someone who could pull the career as a dancer off in the near future."

Shoku leaned against one of the walls, shifting his weight from his feet, onto the wall. He broke eye contact with Kairi, feeling as though if he stared at her for too long she might no longer find it flattering and more so somewhat, unpleasant. "Since I don't know much about the school do you think you could tell me about any places worthy of noting? Or are we both kind of in the same boat about being lost when it comes to the school grounds?"

[Kairi]

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A date? The idea was appealing. Kai could only nod, afraid that if she spoke her tone would give away her excitement. The idea of being his partner, even in the activity she was fairly certain she still didn't understand, was appealing too. He lost her with the club part though. Why in the world would he want to include everyone else? Silly boy. That was a definite no. He could do as he pleased, but he wasn't dragging her into some silly club... at least without asking nicely.

Neither the word creep nor pervert occured to Kai before he said them. She wouldn't have accused him of it because even if he was either, she didn't want to believe it. He was too nice, it was easier just to pretend perfection existed... at least briefly.

"If you'd like to, sure.

[/color]"Kai agreed. If he didn't hold her to it, though, it wouldn't happen. He could share his interest with her, but her sharing with him? Less likely. At least he was kind, encouraging her to pursue it. Kai could only smile at the idea. If only she could go n to be an elegant dancer on some stage somewhere... No, Kai was too practical for that to be her future.

"Sorry, I think we're pretty much on even ground. The only valuable thing I know so far is that the forest is a very dangerous place with creatures that'll eat you alive if you're not careful.[/color]"Kai explained helpfully. After she spoke it occurred to her that she sounded no better than the peers she scoffed at when she'd been told the story of the creature herself. Funny, wasn't it? She wasn't them, though- she was comforted by that knowledge.

✘kai

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[shoku]

"If you'd like to, sure."

"Well then I'm lucky and honored." Shoku thought about the possibility of the girl's story about the forest being true. He wasn't inclined to believe her, seeing as how it sounded like a load of bull the upperclassmen tried to put on the freshmen new students arriving at Grace Academy. However, if it was true, then something told him he was going to become very familiar with the woods.

So called violent beasts? Guess he'd carry out his... unfriendly, tendencies on the poor things, or die trying. The thought of using his bare hands to gut out any creature dumb enough to attack him sent a glimmer of happiness into his blood red eyes. "I'll be sure to watch out for that then, Kai. I have a question though. Have you seen them for yourself? Or did someone tell you from their own experience and knowledge?" The demon assumed it was the latter, but didn't want to express his thoughts about her knowledge of the place, especially if she actually knew what she was talking about, then he'd really look like an ass.

[Kairi]

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When Kai'd been in the woods it seemed obvious that Devon was telling the truth and that there was something to fear. Even though there was little real proof to credit his claim, Kai still believed his every word. Now that she was standing in the hallway with Shoku, suddenly she was at a loss for words. So she just answered his question, knowing fully well that it sounded lame.

"I went out to the woods and a boy there told me. Something about a missing witch.

[/color]"Kai explained, her mind still scrambling for a credible shred of information she left out. She was grasping at straws, it seemed. "I didn't exactly see anything, though. But I hope not to.[/color]" Maybe she shouldn't have even brought it up. But there was always the potential for looking up information about the supposed incident for next time she encountered Shoku, if he was really interested.

"Beyond that, the rest of the school is pretty well a mystery to me.[/color]"Kai added. "I was actually pretty proud of myself just for finding the dorms. Does it seem a bit confusing to you? The school, I mean.[/color]" It was certainly confusing to her. Kai wasn't the best at directions even in familiar places, though.

✘kai

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